Humanitarian Appeal 2012: UN calls for US$ 7.7 billion to help 51 million people in 16 countries

The United Nations today called for US$ 7.7 billion for aid agencies to help 51 million people cope with humanitarian emergencies around the world in 2012.

The appeals, issued in Geneva by UN Humanitarian Chief Valerie Amos, and the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid Kristalina Georgieva, aim to assist people in sixteen of the planet’s most pressing crises, including the world’s largest humanitarian emergency in the Horn of Africa.

“Tens of millions of people will need emergency aid to survive in 2012, and many are among the most vulnerable people in the world,” Ms Amos said.

“This is a time of pressure on aid budgets. I asked Member States to make the extraordinary political effort necessary to raise the resources needed to help people. It is a significant challenge and we need to work together to rise and meet that challenge.”

The appeals reflect a massive coordinated effort by 466 aid organizations - including United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations and other international organizations.

The largest appeals came for countries struggling with drought, insecurity and refugee flows in the Horn of Africa, including Somalia ($1.5bn), Kenya ($764m) and Djibouti ($79m).The funding requirements for Ethiopia have not yet been released.

“Much of the Horn of Africa continues to face the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, with four million people needing urgent humanitarian aid in Somalia alone, and 601,000 refugees now in Kenya,” the appeals overview said. “Even as operations continue to scale up, the situation is expected to get worse and the crisis to continue well into 2012.”

Nine of the sixteen appeals are lower than those for the same countries in 2011, but dramatic increases were seen in Somalia and Yemen.

“In Yemen, the number of people suffering from severe food insecurity has climbed to more than 2 million in recent months,” the appeal warned. “An estimated 466,000 children under 5 are acutely malnourished, and the number of IDPs [internally displaced people] has nearly doubled since 2010.”